ELIZABETHTOWN — Bladen County’s new election board got a surprise message at its meeting Tuesday, and later met for 64 minutes in closed session.
The one hour, 52-minute assembly ended with Louella Thompson, the chairwoman, telling the only two remaining guests that it took no action in closed session, it had concerns about the assignments of poll judges for the May 14 election and it was requesting legal counsel at all of its meetings until the election is certified.
The board met again Thursday morning, with Leslie and Allen Johnson present. The Johnson Law Firm is counsel for the county.
Before going into closed session, during a discussion about curbside voting and parking for early voting, Pat Melvin of the Hilton Auction & Realty Co. told the board the demarcation line for the property adjacent to the county building was within inches of the election board building. Thus, parking to the right on Cypress Street for the voting that was to begin the next morning at 8:30 and continue through the next three Fridays isn’t allowed on the parcel that has gone under contract.
The board, including interim director Valeria McKoy, wore a collective look of shock. Veronia DeGraffenreid, director of election operations for the state Board of Elections in Raleigh, later said that news nugget conflicted with information the county board and county operations staff had received earlier.
Despite the late notice of conflicting information, a solution was in place Wednesday as early voting began in the Republican primary for the 9th congressional district, and for two Bladen County seats: District 3 of the county commissioners, and a supervisor seat on the board of the Soil & Water Conservation Board.
Signs were placed at the Bladen County Public Library directing voters to the Board of Elections building three blocks away. The change in venues was in part due to the state Board of Elections not having finalized a county board, leaving Bladen to have the state standard for early voting in terms of hours and location.
The county election board said it had been to the Abbotts Precinct and determined the location used previously would be suitable for the election on May 14. Board member Patsy Sheppard said the county’s Democratic Party had stepped forward to assist with some areas to make them suitable and safe as handicap accessible.
An agenda item to review and approve absentee voting by mail that had arrived was tabled until a meeting Tuesday. The three Democrats on the board, still without Republican representation, each voiced a concern to the less than a dozen attending that they wanted not only a member of the GOP to be present to watch their work but also an attorney. Short of Republican representation on the board, Sheppard suggested the county’s GOP chairman be present.
Wayne Schaeffer, who was attending and seated with Melvin and Walter McDuffie, has that role and said he would be glad to oblige.
Schaeffer, in an interview with the Bladen Journal after the meeting, said the county party felt the rush to get two people nominated for the board before May 14 did not outweigh doing proper vetting of those candidates. He said the party wished to move forward, but with proper steps being taken.
DeGraffenreid addressed the board before it went into closed session, sharing that she had been present for training, and for accuracy testing. She mentioned how training had went well, and how in ways it had been beneficial for the state board staff.
She later agreed with a suggestion to try, sometime after the May 14 election rush is done, to have public training forums in Bladen County sharing information on what is legal and illegal when it comes to the voting process.